Enough Band-Aids, it's time to heal the wound
Letter to the Editor:
Just over two weeks ago, Sen. Daines held a roundtable discussion in the Flathead Valley concerning the management of Montana’s National forests. The roundtable featured a varying range of comments and perspectives on the topic. Additional discussions were also to take place in Missoula and Bozeman.
About 15 people representing various interests were invited to the table, plus observers and media. They included county commissioners, environmental groups and wood products employees and executives.
The counties of Lincoln, Mineral and Sanders each had a commissioner at the table. They unanimously expressed the same glaring fact: the very precarious fiscal condition of their respective counties.
Representatives of environmental groups indicated that we need to try new models and if I understood correctly, they advocated unexpected and untraditional approaches. I interpret this as meaning, yes, let’s try some out-of-the-box ideas.
The overall thrust of the producers’ comments revolved around the continued decline of log supply for their mills, the declining income for their employees and families and the declining multiplier effect of economic activity. The various mills represented noted that they will experience very low to zero log volume that will hamper or prevent continued production during the annual spring breakup period, when it is not possible to collect logs in the woods and haul them to the millyards. No reliable log supply, no jobs, no multiplier effect. Of course, like a recalcitrant rattlesnake, this formidable trend has survived in spite of countless problem-identifying discussions and roundtables over the past two decades.
Overall, these perspectives indicated the continued deterioration of rural communities in Northwest Montana. As concerned citizens we need to work immediately and intensely toward a long-term management strategy that has the potential to equitably serve all county citizens.
The neglect of economic facts cannot go on, while county services are debilitated and taxation escalates. Yet amazingly, there are rumblings of another three year Secure Rural Schools Band-Aid. Are we politically motivated to begin implementing short-term fixes and at the same time begin testing new management models? The continuous application of bandages shows that the wound refuses to heal. A more intense scrutiny of the wound, with a true healing regimen, is just what the doctor ordered.
As in the past, some participants left with an optimistic glow, others were nonplussed. A few seasoned participants left with a studied wait-and-see attitude. As Yogi Berra once said, it was “déjà vu, all over again.”
But the roundtable served as yet another painful reminder that Lincoln County and surrounding counties have serious economic and fiscal problems which we need to resolve with some vigor and in a timely manner.
— Jerry Okonski, Libby